ENG: I’m really glad that Rage In Eden is boldly starting to explore the Italian dark ambient scene and filching the albums which, I guess, would normally have been released by the Silentes label. And thanks to the fact that these releases are shown to the world courtesy of my native label, perhaps more people in my country will pay attention to those projects. They really are worth it.

First there was Antikatechon and “Chrisma Crucifixorum”. Another Nimh album is waiting in the queue. But today we’ll deal with the joint release of the aforementioned Nimh and Day Before Us, which admittedly doesn’t come from Italy (it’s a French project), but that doesn’t change the fact that “Under Mournful Shadows” tastes like good spaghetti rather than snails stewed in their own juice.

Frenchman Philippe Blache takes care of traditional instruments, while Giuseppe Verticchio is responsible for electronic sounds, field recordings, and more custom audio sources, as well as their treatment. The paths that both gentlemen have tread on during the album’s composition were marked up very clearly. They cooperate harmoniously, do not interfere with one another, none of them has ambitions that his musical agenda will prevail. Philippe presents rather simple organ, piano and guitar melodies while Giuseppe encapsulates them in natural-synthetic textures. This sounds really nice in “Surrounded By A Moonless Night” with its looped dramatic piano theme and the music of nature meandering around it, human voices coming from afar and industrial dirt which leaves a rusty mark on the surface of a crystal clear sound.

But the most beautiful track on “Under Mournful Shadows” is the title track, which echoes the works of Peter Andersson, as if standing in a crossroads between Raison d’Etre and Necrophorus. The mystical atmosphere offered by quasi-religious drones is balanced by the palls of wind and water hovering over a synthetic melancholy. Nothing new on the dark ambient yard, but it sounds really amazing. And the closing track, “Frozen Gleams Of Eternity” is comprised of an atmospheric although a bit rough piano theme, which is a bittersweet farewell to the listener. Until next time.

As I said, nothing new here; yes, piano and organ sounds used this widely is not a standard, but it’s not something completely unique either. But it doesn’t matter, because the whole thing is a decent, professional job by two talented musicians, sometimes with slight touches of real magic.